Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

For the last few days I’ve been playing with fd’s Flickr Toys. It is an excellent set of simple applications that allow one to utilize a tremendous collection of images - Flickr - in a totally new way.

Basically, you can choose any image from Flickr and easily transform it into magazine cover, billboard picture, inspiration frame, calendar picture, stamp, etc. There are plenty of transformations available and they are really easy to use - just a couple of mouse clicks.

If you are a registered Flickr user, there are even more options for you. There are some games available, like, for example, the one for naming your contacts - you are shown a picture made by one of your contacts and given a choice of three options. You also get an option of uploading resulting images directly to your photostream.

Check this one out - it can grab your attention for some time.

P.S.: I liked some results so much that I’ve uploaded them to my Flickr account. You can see them all here (tagged with “fdsflickrtoys”). There are many picture transformations done by other Flickr users too. You can find them all here.

Album location: /photos/2006/2006-01-17_POTD/

The bright one among you have probably guessed by now that my name is Leonid. Well, in Greek and Cypriot culture there is no such name. There is a variation though. It is Leonidas.

As with many other names there was once a hero named Leonidas. In Greece, he was called Big Leonidas. I suspected it, but never got to learn the story until recently.

One of the aging Cypriots asked me if I know the story of Big Leonidas after he learned my name. I had to answer negative. The guy looks at me, relaxes in the armchair preparing to tell a long and noble story and tells me this (word in word):

Once there was a warrior. His name was Big Leonidas. Five hundred… no… one thousand Persians attacked him. And they all died.

He than gave me one of those looks that demanded appreciation. He spent the whole twenty freaking seconds educating me. Wow. It took me another twenty seconds to realize that the story was over. I thanked him afterwards…

Maxim and I went to the beach early in the morning today, as usual. The weather seemed nice, but it was pretty harsh when we got to the sea. Misty clouds were filtering out a lot of sunshine and there was a very very strong wind. It was so strong that all the umbrellas by the sunbeds were closed to prevent them from braking.

The beach looked pretty empty too. It seemed that you had to be insane to enjoy the beach in conditions like this. Because of the limited sunshine and strong wind the water felt very cold too. I was questioning myself for reasons to stay. I was eager to go home. But Maxim seemed to enjoy himself and didn’t mind the weather at all. Since he is the main reason we go swimming, I decided to stay.

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If you aren’t checking daily Dilbert comics, you should. Here are links to a couple of recent episodes that made me smile real good.

• On why you shouldn’t discuss your salary raise with your collegues
• On good and bad news in corporate environment

Enjoy.